Tales of the Urban Explorer: Josephine Butler Care Home

I wasn't sure whether to use the front or back image for the 'Josephine Butler Care Home'. In the end, I went with the back, as it's more of a spectacle and 'haunted' looking…. WOOOOOOO!!!

It was my second attempt at this annoying care home, the first being thwarted by security that at the time was being paid to keep the likes of me away. Since then, I guess they have stopped receiving their salaries as there was a distinct dearth of uniformed officers guarding this old building.

When I say 'uniformed officers', I meant to say bored low-paid workers that can be bribed at times and don't give us explorers much of a hard time when they catch us. On occasions, we have a chat and I feel they are thankful for a little company.

The last reported date of when ‘Josephine Butler Care Home’ was still in use was back in 2016 when it received a "requires improvement" rating from independent watchdog the Care Quality Commission. At the time, there were just 12 people living in the home.
Source

@anidiotexplores had already done this one, quite some time ago and I felt I may be a little late; that was an understatement. Much can dissolve into the woodwork in 6 years or walk out of the doors or windows to be sold on eBay.

Unlike my last visit, access was simple and you can probably guess the way in by looking at the cover image of the back. We did walk around to the front, or should I say tip-toe before discovering security had abandoned the place.

Arriving in the cellar we started upward on a ‘not a journey of a lifetime’.

Climbing upward was one option, but why opt for the hard challenge when stairs are freely available?

It was looking quite bare as I arrived on the ground floor. There was little need to scramble through windows like this when all the doors were accessible.

Likewise, I figured there might be a more simple way down there, besides climbing onto the red wall and jumping in the hope the floor would not collapse.

A rare piece of magazinery in the ‘Josephine Butler Care Home’. The rear of the property offered pensioners plenty of room for gardening.

It looks like the door to a Sauna but you would be mistaken. Just about every window I saw was smashed.

I found no evidence of child molestation, OAP abuse, mass murderers, or one of the many other things that close Care Homes. This one appeared to have fallen on hard times and didn't make the authorities' grade.

Many doors had been sealed and nailed down only to be ripped open by those savage pretend-type Urban Explorers who we real ones greatly benefit from.

If this was someone's bedroom once, it would have been majestic. Rip those window boards off and the light would come streaming through revealing all the dodgy ankle-breaking holes in the floor.

You can see the potential it had... once. I have seen older images of this room before everything was stolen.

Lots of decorative arches, and one of the most scenic areas left in the ‘Josephine Butler Care Home’.

Finding even a little something was quite the thrill. It was one of those extremely bare places.

Now, this would have been quite the challenge if there was any reason to go 'over there'. I was told the far window was an access point once. That's something to get your adrenaline going from the first minute.

The original reception area could well be mistaken for a bar, except for the fact the pumps were missing.

Broken glass was sadly in abundance at the ‘Josephine Butler Care Home’. How I would have loved to see this a few years beforehand.

If they are artists' signatures then they don't do very much. I saw little in the way of decent graffiti.

Mahogany fittings were commonplace throughout. Most of them bore some damage and it would take more than polish to bring them back to life.

That's not a ghostly apparition through there, just @anidiotexplores arsing about.

A room with a little wallpaper and garnished with Liverpool's finest artists; quite embarrassing.

The fire escape was potentially another way out. There was little need to smash the glass and open it, you could either crawl under it or climb over. The bottom of the exit however was blocked and inaccessible. Some escape route.

A portable bath? I didn’t go any further into this room; you don’t know what’s lurking in the depths of that shitter.

By and large, the ‘Josephine Butler Care Home’ has escaped arson. There was a small section but most of it is still intact.

It’s one of those cheap bedrooms, the none en-suite type where you need to piss in the sink during those needy times in the middle of the night.

In fact, there were several of this bedroom type. It could well be more difficult for the ladies or the lesser-endowed gentlemen.

If you really need the proper bathroom there are comforting words on the wall, to help you through those last years of life.

We came across the odd very sealed door, but I felt little need to rip it open with my bare hands.

For the more daring types, the roof excursion is optional and there's little warning that the slates are a little loose. Being susceptible to vertigo and valuing my mortality, I passed.

The banister had been ripped loose and mysteriously vanished.

There was a little water damage beyond 'the great stairs' but it has mostly survived that ailment so far.

Getting out of the 'Josephine Butler Care Home' in the basement was a royal pain in the arse. Some makeshift ladders had been thoughtfully provided but collapsed every time I tried to stand on them painfully trapping my feet on more than one occasion.

This was all much to the amusement of @anidiotexplores who scampered up the vertical wall and out like a bloody vampire. I was lucky not to pull my shoulder heaving myself out of that dank basement room.

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